prisoner of war

English

WOTD – 18 August 2022

Etymology

Calque of French prisonnier de guerre, prisonier de guerre (obsolete).[1]

Pronunciation

(Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪz.(ə).nə əv ˈwɔː/
(General American) IPA^(key): /ˈpɹɪz.(ə).nɚ əv ˈwoɹ/
Rhymes: -ɔː(ɹ)
Hyphenation: pri‧son‧er of war
Audio (CA) (file)

Noun

prisoner of war (plural prisoners of war)

A combatant or soldier who is captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict. [from early 17th c.]
Synonyms: (abbreviations) POW, PW

As a prisoner of war, he was interrogated by his enemy captors.

Derived terms

prisoner-of-war camp

Translations

combatant or soldier captured by an enemy power during or immediately after an armed conflict

Albanian: rob lufte m
Arabic: أَسِير الْحَرْب m (ʔasīr al-ḥarb), أَسِير m (ʔasīr)
Armenian: ռազմագերի (hy) (ṙazmageri)
Azerbaijani: hərbi əsir
Belarusian: ваеннапало́нны (vajennapalónny), пало́нны m (palónny)
Bulgarian: военнопле́нник m (voennoplénnik)
Burmese: စစ်သုံ့ပန်း (cacsum.pan:), သုံ့ပန်း (my) (sum.pan:)
Chinese:
Mandarin: 戰俘／战俘 (zh) (zhànfú), 俘虜／俘虏 (zh) (fúlǔ)
Czech: zajatec (cs) m, válečný zajatec m
Danish: krigsfange c
Dutch: krijgsgevangene (nl) m or f, oorlogsgevangene (nl) m or f
Esperanto: please add this translation if you can
Estonian: sõjavang
Faroese: krígsfangi m
Finnish: sotavanki (fi)
French: prisonnier de guerre (fr) m, prisonnière de guerre f
Galician: prisioneiro de guerra m, prisioneira de guerra f
Georgian: სამხედრო ტყვე (samxedro ṭq̇ve)
German: Kriegsgefangener (de) m, Kriegsgefangene (de) f
Greek: αιχμάλωτος πολέμου m or f (aichmálotos polémou)
Ancient: αἰχμάλωτος m or f (aikhmálōtos)
Hebrew: שָׁבוּי m (shavúy), שְׁבוּיָה f (shvuyá)
Hindi: युद्ध-बंदी m (yuddh-bandī), बंदी (hi) m (bandī)
Hungarian: hadifogoly (hu)
Icelandic: stríðsfangi m
Indonesian: tahanan perang
Interlingua: prisionero de guerra
Italian: prigioniero di guerra m, prigioniera di guerra f
Japanese: 捕虜 (ja) (ほりょ, horyo)
Kazakh: соғыс тұтқыны (soğys tūtqyny), әскери тұтқын (äskeri tūtqyn)
Korean: 전쟁 포로(戰爭捕虜) (jeonjaeng poro), 포로(捕虜) (ko) (poro)
Kyrgyz: согуш туткуну (soguş tutkunu)
Latin: dēditīcius m
Latvian: karagūsteknis m
Lithuanian: please add this translation if you can
Malay: tahanan perang
Marathi: युद्धकैदी m (yuddhakaidī)
Nandi: cheploñgio
Navajo: yisnááh
Norwegian:
Bokmål: krigsfange m

Nynorsk: krigsfange (nn) m
Ottoman Turkish: طالاق (dalak)
Persian: اسیر (fa) (asir), اسیر جنگی (asir-e jangi), اسیر حربی (asir-e harbi)
Polish: jeniec wojenny m pers
Portuguese: prisioneiro de guerra m, prisioneira de guerra f
Romanian: prizonier de război m
Russian: военнопле́нный (ru) m (vojennoplénnyj), пле́нный (ru) m (plénnyj)
Scottish Gaelic: prìosanach-chogaidh m
Serbo-Croatian:
Cyrillic: заробљеник m, ратни заробљеник m

Roman: zarobljenik (sh) m, ratni zarobljenik m
Slovak: zajatec m, vojnový zajatec m
Slovene: ujetnik (sl) m, vojni ujetnik m
Spanish: prisionero de guerra m, prisionera de guerra f
Swahili: mfungwa wa vita
Swedish: krigsfånge (sv) c
Tajik: асир (tg) (asir), асири ҳарбӣ (asiri harbī)
Tamil: போர் கைதி (pōr kaiti)
Tatar: әсир (tt) (äsir)
Telugu: యుద్ధ ఖైదీ (yuddha khaidī)
Thai: เชลยศึก (chá-ləəi-sʉ̀k)
Turkish: savaş tutsağı (tr), savaş esiri
Ukrainian: бра́нець (uk) m (bránecʹ), військовополоне́ний m (vijsʹkovopolonényj), полоне́ний m (polonényj)
Urdu: جنگی قیدی m (jangī qaidī)
Uyghur: ئەسىر (esir)
Uzbek: harbiy asir
Vietnamese: tù binh (vi)
Volapük: kligafanäböpäb

References

“prisoner of war, n.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, June 2022; “prisoner of war, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

prisoner of war

English

Etymology

Pronunciation

Noun

Derived terms

Translations

References

Further reading